Sunday, September 4, 2016

Weekend TTM Roundup: 8/29-9/3

Received On: 08/30/2016

My first return this week came from Darrin Fletcher.

The likely English or Irish or Scottish American Darrin Fletcher was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth round of the 1987 MLB Player Draft. The son of former Tiger Tom Fletcher, Darrin made his MLB debut in 1989 and spent a 14 year career in the big leagues (mainly with the Expos). One of the backstop's highlights as a big leaguer is being the catcher who caught Tom Greene's no hitter in 1991 with the Phillies (ironically against the Expos).

Received On: 09/01/2016

My next return came from Rich Bordi.
The Italian-American Rich Bordi was originally drafted by the Oakland A's in the third round of the 1980 MLB Player Draft. He made his MLB debut not long afterwards and he spent a nine year career in the big leagues as a reliever and a starter. Bordi's spent time with the A's, M's, Cubs, Yankees and O's. Here's a better write-up on Rich Bordi.

Received On: 09/01/2016

Next up is former MLB southpaw Frank Tanana.
The Polish-American Frank Tanana was originally drafted by the California Angels in the first round of the 1971 MLB Player Draft. Coming out of the gate, Tanana enjoyed a lot of success early on as a member of the Angels. Anchoring a rotation that already had Nolan Ryan, Tanana's blazing fastball took him to the all star game three times. In 1979 Tanana started having shoulder troubles and he later reinvented himself as a pitcher going from a flamethrower to being more crafty with his breaking pitches.

In addition to my Score card, Mr. Tanana also sent along this custom of his depicting him as a Tiger. This custom serves as a pamphlet in which Tanana describes his close relationship with his faith. Very cool.

And those were my returns this week. Big thanks to Mr. Fletcher, Bordi and Tanana for the awesome autographs.